While most environmental problems might be too big to tackle on your own, there are several conservation and cleanup activities this month that will make a difference right here in your own backyard. 

storm drain stenciling
On Wednesday, Sept. 14, volunteers will converge at two locations—on Dennett Street between 9 a.m. and noon and at the Pannaway Manor neighborhood between 1 and 4 p.m.—to leave their marks on 105 storm drains. Crews representing the city’s Department of Public Works, the N.H. Department of Environmental Services, the Advocates of North Mill Pond, the New Franklin School’s fifth grade, United Way’s Day of Caring and Newmarket International will participate to stencil the phrase “Don’t Dump, Protect Your Waters” on the storm drains that empty water directly into Hodge Brook and North Mill Pond. The event is part of the United Way’s annual Day of Caring.

“Basically what we are doing is an education effort to draw attention that the storm drains go to local water bodies and not to a sewage treatment plant like some residents believe,” said Hodgson Brook watershed coordinator Sherry Godlewski. Items that commonly get dumped into the storm drains include car wash run-off, fertilizer, dog feces and automotive waste.

Advocates of North Mill Pond, an organization of residents living on and around that body of water, want to harvest the partially polluted pond for mussels. They helped organize the event to raise awareness that residents should think before they dump.

Other project partners include the Hodgson Brook Advisory Board, N.H. Department of Environmental Services, the City of Portsmouth, and the UNH/Sea Grant Cooperative Extension.

The event will start at 9 a.m. at New Franklin School. To volunteer or to learn more about the program call Godlewski at 603-559-1529.


International Coastal Cleanup
Spend a day at the beach on Saturday, Sept. 17 (rain date Sept. 18) by helping out at the 20th International Coastal Cleanup Day, coordinated locally by the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation and funded by the N.H. Department of Environmental Services. The International Coast Cleanup involves 90 countries and millions of volunteers around the world removing debris and trash from coastal beaches and waterways. 

“It’s part of a global chance for New Hampshire to participate in a worldwide event,” said Cathy Colletti, public outreach coordinator for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. “It’s a chance for people to make a strong statement about the problem of marine debris and how we can solve it.”
The most common items found on coastal beaches are cigarette butts, followed by picnic supplies that blow into the water from beach picnickers and boaters. 

“Marine debris is harmful to people and marine life,” said Colletti. “A hook on the beach can get caught in someone’s foot, and nets can tangle marine animals so they can’t breath or eat.”

In New Hampshire, 20 cleanup sites have been designated on the coastline and Great Bay area, including an underwater cleanup site involving divers near the Sheafe Warehouse in Portsmouth. Other sites include Wallace Sands Beach in Rye, Seabrook Beach, North Beach, Rye Beach and Rye Harbor State Park. 

Volunteer at www.blueoceansociety.org/coastalcleanup/ or by calling 603-431-0260. 

Trashformation
What’s the saying? One man’s trash is another man’s art? The Seacoast Science Center in Rye encourages volunteers involved in the International Coastal Cleanup to collect the three most peculiar pieces of trash they find (not the grossest) and bring them to the Seacoast Science Center at 2:15 pm Saturday after the clean-up (rain date also Sept. 18).

The pieces of trash, as well as cards with facts about the marine debris, will be organized into a sculpture by Dover’s Kristen Lanzer, a mixed media sculptor who works with recycled materials. 

“The sculpture will travel around the Seacoast to teach people about what we find here and to teach people about coastal debris,” said Perrin Chick, director of interpretation at the Seacoast Science Center, of the Trashformation event.

BioBlitz!
Scavenge over the hills and through the woods in the Seacoast Science Center’s third annual BioBlitz! day on Saturday, Sept. 24. Held at the Center in Rye, nature enthusiasts and naturalists will comb Odiorne Point State Park alongside scientists and professors to identify and categorize the  species of the park.

“It’s a good way for people to understand the importance of having a large number of different organisms within a habitat,” said Wendy Lull, president of the Seacoast Science Center.
The dawn-to-dusk event, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m., will send volunteers, visitors and scientists scrambling through the park’s 135 acres of seven different habitats (Gulf of Maine, rocky shore, woodlands, salt pond, freshwater pond, sandy beach and salt marsh) to beat last year’s record of 685 flora and fauna found.

“Because data (of natural habitats) changes over time it’s a good way to access the health of the landscape of our seven different habitats,” said Karen Provazza, marketing coordinator.
The scientists and professors on site include University of New Hampshire professor of Zoology John Burger, New Hampshire Coast Watch’s Candace Dolan, and N.H. Fish and Game officer Rob Royer.
The Seacoast Science Center will provide food and refreshments, as well as several mini-lectures on biodiversity and the kind of species people can find in their own backyards.  

“We want to encourage people when they go home to think about their own habitats in their own backyards,” said Lull. “To think about their own home as a habitat and an environment and to provide shelter for the native species and to grow plants that attract native species.”

Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children ages 3-12, and free for those under 3. Call 603-436-8043 to help the Seacoast Science Center staff and scientists organize and run the event, or visit the center at 570 Ocean Boulevard, Rye.